Termination is a critical property for the formalization of programs correctness. Verifing automatically termination of a program for an input is known as Halting Problem and Turing proved that this is undecidable. However, it is possible to build semi decision algorithms for the verification of termination, that answer ???yes??? if it is possible to prove that the algorithm halts, and ???do not know??? otherwise. To construct these semi decision algorithms it is necessary to consider different notions of termination, proving that they are equivalent. In this work, notions of termination were formalized equivalent for a minimal functional first order language called PVS0 using the proof assistant Prototype Verification System. These notions are: the functions produces an output, the derivation tree of recursive calls of functions has a finite size (both these notions are called semantic termination), and the arguments of functions decreases for each recursive call (this notion is called ranking function). The contributions of this work includes formalization of lemma related with the equivalence between notions of semantic and ranking function termination, and the main results are the formalization of indecidability of Halting Problem and Turing-Completeness of PVS0.

Over the last few years, there has been a significant evolution on management the Portuguese banking system, including the number of banking institutions that comprise it, as well as the level of objectives and economic constraints that influence corporate decisions and their activity consequences. The increase in competition and globalization are at the heart of the search for best market practices and the increasing search for institute productivity and efficiency. Currently one of the main concerns of the business is the constant measurement of the productive and organizational units profitability, taking into account their productivity and efficiency ratio. The increasing use of new technologies and the need on the part of different stakeholders for greater operational efficiency of financial institutions, contributed to a massive growth of home banking portals and mobile phone, and mobile banking services. Being mobile banking a great channel of interaction with
the client, this study seeks to: ? Identify customer acceptance, ? Identify customer satisfaction relative to mobile banking usage, ? Aim at exploring customer satisfaction on the usage of banking App?s with customer loyalty.

This work aims to propose a multidimensional metric that aims to improve routing performance in mobile ad hoc networks in the presence of selfish nodes, nodes in sleep mode. In order to reach a better performance in the delivery rate of packets successfully, we observed the results achieved by other metrics in simulations, which resulted in the discovery of patterns and behaviors that led to the development of a metric that supplied the gaps and inaccuracies of those metrics. This work??s validation was performed using a simulation method, with the DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) protocol which was modified so as to implement and to operate with our proposed metric. The simulations results show that the metric proposed in this work presents, at some points, a successfully delivery rate of packets 30% higher than the original metric of the DSR protocol and about 15% higher than that of the metric proposed in a previous work by (Serique; Sousa, 2011).

Peanuts are among the world's largest oilseeds. It has stood out as healthy food and of great importance. The composition of the grains is 46% oil, 26% protein, in addition to minerals and a range of vitamins and antioxidant compounds. Peanut oil has wide applicability in the food, cosmetic, oleochemical and biofuel segments. The oilseed adapts well in regions of equatorial and temperate climates, and can be…

The Cerrado biome harbors many useful plant species. Among these, Annona crassiflora Mart, known as araticum, is a tree with fruits used for human feeding, mainly by traditional communities. To encourage its sustainable use and harvest, the objective of this work was to know the conservation status of its populations. Therefore, it was evaluated the population structure and the environmental and anthropic variables associated to the life stage densities, defined as seedlings, infants, juvenile and adults. For this, we studied 40 populations of A. crassiflora in different conservation conditions, being 29 in primary cerrado and 11 in areas converted to pasture. Soil characteristics of clay content and sum of exchangeable bases, plant cover and altitude represented environment variable, while indexes of extractivism, cattle and vegetation thinning represented anthropic interventions. Most populations showed…

Several policies have been implemented in the Amazon throughout its history seeking the regional development, and that directly affected the landscape of this region. These changes are faster in the area known as the "Deforestation Arc", an agricultural frontier area in which the municipality of Tail?ndia, in Par? State, Brazil, is located. One of these development policies was palm oil to biodiesel production from 2004. Know how this culture has expanded and what its effects on the local landscape is extreme important for possible adjustments in the development policies of palm oil or for the formulation of new policies for the Amazon. In this context, the objective of this research was to analyze the changes in the landscape of the…

The aim of this study is to identify and map the historical emergence of what we called the ?Dispositif of Sustainable Development? (DSD), within the scope of the Brazilian media coverage of environmental summits. Our starting point is Foucault?s theoretical-methodological framework, notably the concept of ?dispositif? (apparatus) ? which encompasses both discursive and non-discursive practices ? and the following analytical categories: discourse, statement, discursive heterogeneity, archive, subject, discursive formation and discursive order. Other than the Foucauldian framework, we employed Deleuze's analytical grid (1996, 2005), i.e. lines of visibility, lines of enunciation, lines of force and lines of subjectivation, in order to distinguish the power-knowledge nexus related to the environmental crisis, first at the time of the 1972 Stockholm Conference, and then in the coverage of the 2012 Rio + 20 Conference by daily newspapers O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado of S. Paulo. Our analysis has been carried out in three stages: Step 1 (diachronic), about the emergence of the historical urgency of the environmental crisis in modern times; Step 2 (diachronic), about the emergence of the DSD; and Step 3 (synchronic), about the manifestation of DSD through the media coverage of the Rio + 20 Summit. The research has identified four lines of force in the composition of the DSD: the Economic-Developmental one; the…

This research had as a general goal to understand how musical learning occurs in a school band based on the musical learning strategies found in such a context. This study sought to broaden perspectives on music band beyond what happens in the time/space devoted to classes and rehearsals, identifying resources, actors and behaviors triggered during learning. The research sought to answer the following research questions: Where and with whom students learn? How do they organize themselves to learn? What resources are used to learn music? Why? How are they used? The theoretical reference adopted in the survey was the selfregulation of learning (Bandura, 1986,…

The present work is focused on the analysis of journalism and its possible structural (or not) changes in times of internet and digital convergence. The proposal is to study journalism through the web. The focus is in the process of news production with the emergence and practice of social media - specifically Facebook and Twitter. We aim to understand, employing the theory of Newsmaking, the use of these media as tools for journalists and how these tools participate in the meaning of reality constructed by these professionals. The goal, then, was to examine whether and to what extent social media influence the production of news in the newspapers Correio Braziliense and Jornal de Bras?lia, elected as the corpus of this work. We start from the assumption that traditional journalistic routines are influenced by the use of these media (specifically Facebook and Twitter) to work with the hypothesis that journalists change their routines of news production due to the use of social media.

This research analyzes the contributions of retextualization and textual genres in high school in order to help students with the text production. The work is based on social interactionist perspective of language teaching. Based on the analysis of texts written by scholarship students developed in a public institution of high…

The hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) is an emerging
anthropozoonosis with a high fatality rate. In Brazil its transmission is by
exposure to the feces of infected wild rodents. The living and housing conditions
in rural areas, suburbanization, environmental and climate change are related to the transmission of the virus. This study analyses the ecological and geographical distributions of rodent reservoirs of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, as well as the socioeconomic, demographic and environmental factors related to the occurrence …

This work presents a complete approach for the analysis of heat conduction problems in solids using the boundary element method. The analysis begins with the drawing of the solid in a computer aided design program (CAD program). This drawing is then exported in the IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) format which is read in the developed program. To read the file with the .igs extension, an open source package available on the internet is used. Then, the geometry is decomposed into three-dimensional surfaces in space that are parametrized in a parametric plan using non-uniform rational B-splines, i.e., NURBS. Each of these surfaces are discretized in the parametric plane using the Delaunay triangulation. This triangulation is done using a two-dimensional triangular finite element method mesh generator which is also an open source package. The triangular mesh in the plane is then transported into space. The boundary conditions of the problem are imposed, the influence matrices of the boundary element method are assembled and a linear system is solved to compute the unknown variables in the boundary. Finally, the temperature in the surface of the solid is shown on a heat map. The program is applied in problems with high geometric complexity in order to demonstrate the developed formulation…

► Operations and maintenance (O&M) activities represent a significant share of the expenses during the lifetime of offshore wind farms. When compared to onshore wind…
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▼ Operations and maintenance (O&M) activities represent a significant share of the expenses during the lifetime of offshore wind farms. When compared to onshore wind farms, O&M costs are increased for the offshore case, as specialized vessels, weather windows and rough conditions mean more failures, downtime (decreasing availability), spare parts, and man-hours.This study comprises an analysis of the available O&M data from a selected offshore wind farm. The results and conclusions from this investigation could then be used to evaluate possible reliability improvements and compare options for the maintenance strategies, as well as to ponder the convenience of warranty periods and O&M agreements between wind farm operators and wind turbine manufacturers or O&M service providers.The life-cycle cost (LCC) concept is utilized in the analysis of the wind farm survey for this thesis. LCC analysis could be the starting point to make decisions regarding specific wind turbine models, as selecting the turbines with the lowest initial cost may not be necessarily the scenario which also costs the least amount of money when taking into consideration the whole life cycle. It may also be a great tool to forecast future operational incomes and expenses of offshore wind farms.

The present study brought together a blog and Environmental Education to make an experience with students of the Centro de Ensino M?dio Integrado (CEMI), a public school located in the city of Gama and linked to the Secretaria de Estado de Educa??o/DF. The objective was to understand how the blog tool could contribute to pass on practices in Environmental Education next to high school students. The process consisted of experiential training that resulted in the publication of content (posts), originated in the scope of the research for sharing on the Web. The research had a qualitative approach and was carried out through talk wheels and sensitization workshops, with the subjects reflecting on the Self, the Other, and the planet Earth. These themes were based on environmental complexity and human ecology. The sample of the research was 12 (twelve) students: 08 (eight) female and 04 (four) male, aged between 16 (sixteen) and 18 (eighteen) years, among which 01 (one) attended the 1st year and 11 (eleven) the 2nd year,…

► Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the delivery of transportation infrastructure are said to offer increased efficiency resulting from the private sector’s life-cycle approach to design and…
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▼ Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the delivery of transportation infrastructure are said to offer increased efficiency resulting from the private sector’s life-cycle approach to design and construction. While the literature on PPPs endorses such efficiencies, studies don’t provide empirical support for that claim. The goal of this thesis was to assess that notion.
Four tasks were carried out to explore that issue. First, a literature review
searched for evidence of such efficiencies and methodologies to evaluate them. Second, a simple methodology to evaluate the life-cycle cost-efficiencies of the public and private sectors was proposed. Third, since most PPP projects in the U.S. are recent and currently subject to routine operations and maintenance (O&M), indicators to compare those costs were proposed as well. Fourth, a case study compared the routine O&M costs of a PPP and of those of a system of publicly developed and managed tollroads.
The literature review found no empirical evidence of superior O&M cost-efficiency of PPPs, and also, that most studies focused on design and construction cost and schedule overruns. While some studies assessing performance and/or efficiency were at times theoretical and not likely employed in practice, one methodology is proposed to evaluate life-cycle cost-efficiency. The case study results showed that the concessionaire was more cost-efficient in terms of operating expenditures (OPEX) per mile (-60%) and per lane-mile (-53%) than the system. The public system was more cost-efficient in OPEX per vehicle-miles travelled (97%), number of toll transactions (332%), and toll revenue (20%). However, those three indicators depend on traffic volume which during the study period was overwhelmingly greater on the public system.
While the case study showed cost-efficiency differences between the public and private sectors, additional research is needed to empirically test the hypothesis of greater efficiency of the private sector. The proposed framework can be used, but adequate data and further assumptions about O&M costs are needed; for that, it is recommended that more comprehensive case studies be performed to obtain detailed empirical data. A better understanding of the differences in cost-efficiency between publicly and privately managed roads will help decision-makers minimize the life-cycle cost of their investments.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walton, C. Michael (advisor), Murphy, Michael Ross (advisor).

► Maintenance costs of offshore wind power, where fixed monopile support columns make up the majority of wind turbine types, are up to three times higher…
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▼ Maintenance costs of offshore wind power, where fixed monopile support columns make up the majority of wind turbine types, are up to three times higher than those associated with onshore wind power. High costs are exacerbated by difficulties accessing the turbines in their marine environment. Safe transfer by crew transfer vessel (CTV) requires prediction of vessel motion whilst in contact with the turbine monopile. Future vessel motion prediction first requires analysis through analytical and numerical methods of the local hydrodynamic wave field and wave loading on the monpile turbine in ocean waves. A location-dependent unidirectional sea state is represented by superposition of periodic waves with amplitude components an, obtained from the spectral distribution of free surface displacement data from a single wave buoy located at the Teesside Offshore Wind Farm in the southern North Sea. Wave buoy data was obtained for each season during the 2015/2016 time period, providing a record of seasonal changes that occur in the spectral distribution. Wave loading in the local irregular sea state was predicted using the Morison equation and the linear diffraction formulation. Numerical predictions were obtained using OpenFOAM and a modification of the multiphase interFoam solver for generating free surface waves, where a boundary condition for inputting irregular waves based on the local wave spectra was developed for the purpose of this thesis. For unimodal spectral distributions, which occur in 50% of the data sets with a third data set displaying a small secondary peak, the analytical solutions for the diffracted hydrodynamics and wave loading show satisfactory agreement with the numerical predictions, provided a slip boundary condition is applied on the cylinder. Comparisons were made between analytical solutions and numerical predictions for each of the four data sets, where the irregular wave field was simulated first in a numerical wave tank and then interacting with a fixed cylinder representative of a monopile wind turbine. Simulations were run using both a slip and non-slip cylinder wall boundary conditions in order to determine the effects of viscosity. OpenFOAM can potentially provide better predictions of the diffracted water particle kinematics resulting from the interaction between the sea state at Teesside Offshore Wind Farm and the turbine monopiles, but with a significantly increased computational overhead. The analytical solutions provide satisfactory and relatively fast solutions, although at the expense of neglecting higher-order terms. Both methods presented in this thesis provide practitioners with enhanced knowledge of the seasonspecific local hydrodynamics and wave loading based on actual sea state data, rather than relying on a parametric location-specific representation. Enhanced knowledge of the hydrodynamic field affecting vessel motion will give a better prediction of vessel motion under operating conditions, and eventual determination of the limiting conditions under which the vessel will…
Advisors/Committee Members: Kelliher, Denis, Thomas, Gareth, Borthwick, Alistair, SFI.

McLagan, T. L. (2017). Re[growth] :
a development of social capital through food network
accessibility. (Masters Thesis). University of Pretoria. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60188

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

McLagan, Toni Lisa. “Re[growth] :
a development of social capital through food network
accessibility.” 2017. Masters Thesis, University of Pretoria. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60188.

► Understanding of the interrelationship between structure, thermodynamic properties and phase diagrams is very useful for rationalizing the behavior of materials and development of predictive models,…
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▼ Understanding of the interrelationship between structure, thermodynamic properties and phase diagrams is very useful for rationalizing the behavior of materials and development of predictive models, which can be used to optimize the composition of materials and their fabrication processes. The properties of materials are governed by its electronic and crystallographic structure. Chemical bonding determines the electronic structure of materials. Furthermore, the electronic structure plays a predominant role in determining the physical, electrical, magnetic, thermal and optical properties of materials. Crystal structure also influences most properties of materials. Since changes in thermodynamic variables such as temperature, pressure, and composition dramatically alter the physical properties of materials and its structure, it is desirable to study the thermodynamic stability of materials in conjunction with phase relations. Phase diagrams can indicate the ranges of pressure, temperature and chemical composition where specific phases and mixtures of phases are stable. If the Gibbs energies of all the phases involved are known, phase diagram can be computed using Gibbs energy minimization algorithms. In recent times, one of the important uses of thermodynamics in materials science has been in the computation of phase diagrams. To materials scientists phase diagrams are like maps to travelers. They guide the path through the composition space to find phases, fulfilling specific materials performance requirements. As phase diagrams are the graphic representations of minimizations of Gibbs energy under given constraints, computational thermodynamics significantly expands our capability to walk in the multi-component space of engineering materials.
High-temperature phase-equilibrium studies, thermodynamics and materials processing have had a close relationship over a number of decades. Successful utilization of ceramic materials under different environmental conditions at high temperatures requires accurate thermodynamic data. Focus of the present investigation is to obtain correct phase relations and accurate thermodynamic data in selected technologically important ceramic oxide systems in which the data are either not available or are inconsistent. Based on the experimental data, different types of phase diagrams are computed for the systems of contemporary relevance.
After a brief introduction, Chapter 1 discusses the brief overview of the experimental techniques available for determining the phase relations and thermodynamic properties at high temperatures and the methods used in this study. The chapter reviews the possible sources of errors in experimental techniques and tests for correct functioning.
In Chapter 2, systematic studies on high-temperature phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties of compounds in the ternary systems Ln-Pd-O (Ln = La, Pr, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) are presented. Some of the ternary oxides on the Ln-Pd-O systems have potential application in catalysis and electrochemistry. To…
Advisors/Committee Members: Jacob, K T.

[en] The study of the main certifications, seals and
qualifications applied in Brazil and in the world reveals the
advantages of these certificates for buildings that seek to
encourage the practice of sustainability in the city of Rio de
Janeiro. Over the next two decades there has been an impasse
between developed countries and those who advocated environmental
preservation, since the former believed in capitalist economic
development only by changing raw materials. Finally, in the 1980s
the term sustainable development was created, whose definition
consisted in the defense of a development able to meet current
needs without harming the possibility of future generations to meet
their own needs. Due to this growing concern with the environment,
the construction sector needed to adapt to new requirements,
changing methods and creating means to control and supervise
sustainable practices, through environmental certificates such as
LEED, AQUA-HQE, Selo Casa Azul and Qualification
Qualiverde.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

BACELLAR MDRMF. [en] ANALYSIS OF EXISTING BUILDINGS IN RIO DE JANEIRO WITH
APPLICATION OF CERTIFICATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY. [Thesis]. Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro; 2018. Available from: http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=33930

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► This research was designed to investigate the fundamental nature in which blind people utilize audible cues to attend to their surroundings. Knowledge on how blind…
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▼ This research was designed to investigate the fundamental nature in which blind people utilize audible cues to attend to their surroundings. Knowledge on how blind people respond to external spatial stimuli is expected to assist in development of better tools for helping people with visual disabilities navigate their environment. There was also interest in determining how blind people compare to sighted people in auditory localization tasks. The ability of sighted individuals, blindfolded individuals, and blind individuals in localizing spatial auditory targets was assessed. An acoustic display board allowed the researcher to provide multiple sound presentations to the subjects. The subjects’ responses in localization tasks were measured using a combination of kinematic head tracking and eye tracking hardware. Data was collected and analyzed to determine the ability of the groups in localizing spatial auditory targets. Significant differences were found among the three groups in spatial localization error and temporal patterns.
Advisors/Committee Members: Peter Pidcoe, Dianne Pawluk.

► Petrophysical evaluation of the Albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the O-M field, Offshore South Africa has been performed. The main goal of the…
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▼ Petrophysical evaluation of the Albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the O-M field, Offshore South Africa has been performed. The main goal of the thesis is to evaluate the reservoir potentials of the field through the integration and comparison of results from core analysis, production data and petrography studies for the evaluation and correction of key petrophysical parameters from wireline logs which could be used to generate an effective reservoir model. A total of ten wells were evaluated and twenty eight sandstone reservoirs were encountered of which twenty four are gas bearing and four are wet within the Albian age depth interval of 2800m to 3500m. Six lithofacies (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6) were grouped according to textural and structural features and grain size from the key wells (OP1, OP2 and OP3). Facies A6 was identified as non reservoir rock in terms of reservoir rock quality and facies A1 and A2 were regarded as the best reservoir rock quality. This study identifies the different rock types that comprise reservoir and non reservoirs. Porosity and permeability are the key parameters for identifying the rock types and reservoir characterization. Pore throat radius was estimated from conventional core porosity and permeability with application of the Winland’s method for assessment of reservoir rock quality on the bases of pore throat radius. Results from the Winland’s method present five Petrofacies (Mega porous, Macro porous, Meso porous, Micro porous and Nanno porous). The best Petrofacies was mega porous rock type which corresponds to lithofacies A1 and A2. The nano porous rock type corresponds to lithofacies A6 and was subsequently classified as non reservoir rock. The volume of clay model from log was taken from the gamma-ray model corrected by Steiber equations which was based on the level of agreement between log data and the x-ray diffraction (XRD) clay data. The average volume of clay determined ranged from 1 – 28 %. The field average grain density of 2.67 g/cc was determined from core data which is representative of the well formation, hence 2.67 g/cc was used to estimate porosity from the density log. Reservoir rock properties are generally good with reservoir average porosities between 10 – 22 %, an average permeability of approximately 60mD. The laterolog resistivity values have been invasion corrected to yield estimates of the true formation resistivity. In general, resistivities of above 4.0 Ohm-m are productive reservoirs, an average water resistivity of 0.1 Ohm-m was estimated. Log calculated water saturation models were calibrated with capillary pressure and conventional core determined water saturations, and the Simandoux shaly sand model best agree with capillary and conventional core water saturations and was used to determine field water saturations. The reservoir average water saturations range between 23 – 69 %. The study also revealed quartz as being the dominant mineral in addition to abundant chlorite as the major clay mineral. The fine textured and dispersed pore…
Advisors/Committee Members: Carey, Paul (advisor), De Poquioma, Escordia (advisor).

Opuwari, M. (2010). Petrophysical evaluation of the albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the o-m field, orange basin, South Africa
. (Thesis). University of the Western Cape. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3010

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Opuwari, Mimonitu. “Petrophysical evaluation of the albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the o-m field, orange basin, South Africa
.” 2010. Thesis, University of the Western Cape. Accessed March 21, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3010.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Opuwari M. Petrophysical evaluation of the albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the o-m field, orange basin, South Africa
. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of the Western Cape; 2010. [cited 2019 Mar 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3010.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Opuwari M. Petrophysical evaluation of the albian age gas bearing sandstone reservoirs of the o-m field, orange basin, South Africa
. [Thesis]. University of the Western Cape; 2010. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3010

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► The demand for energy is still increasing, together with the desire to create more durable solutions. Wind energy is currently one of the most promising…
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▼ The demand for energy is still increasing, together with the desire to create more durable solutions. Wind energy is currently one of the most promising ways to provide both. A shortage of suitable land sites was the main reason for considering the location of the wind farms offshore, which also offers higher wind speeds. A problem however is formed by the low accessibility during periods of high wind speeds. This low accessibility could lead to a decrease in availability of the system and high O&M cost, both unfavourable for the levelised production cost and thus the profitability of the system. The levelised production costs have long been used as the main criterion in the evaluation of a farm design. In a private energy market, the system however should be optimised to maximise profit. At present energy prices the difference this
gives for the optimisation of the farm and its O&M can be neglected. The goal of this thesis is the optimisation of operations and maintenance on Offshore Wind Energy Conversion Systems with a probabilistic model. A number of previously executed studies were used to determine what input parameters should playa role. This showed that all subsystems contribute significantly to the initial capital cost, O&M cost and the unavailability of the system. The model should take into account that periods of low accessibility coincide with periods of high energy potential. The model is based on a state-space model of each component. A component can find itself in the states "Failed", "Corrective Maintenance", "Preventive Maintenance" or "Available". Each component in the system is part of the chain connection that transports the produced energy to shore. If this chain is broken by a failure the loss in production capacity is determined by the place of the component in the chain. The failure of a component is determined by a Monte Carlo simulation. The reliability of components decreases in time according to a certain decline rate. After the execution of PM or CM the initial reliability will be restored. The program, written in visual basic, shows results according to predictions by hand calculations and results from other studies. It can be used to optimise the system. A simulation of the base case showed that the turbines are the main cause of unavailability and cost. The main cost drivers of ICC are turbines and their support structure. As expected the main O&M costs are
caused by the turbine and in particular the rotors. The turbines are also the main cause of unavailability: 7% compared to around 2% for the shore- and grid connection. There is a relationship between unavailability of the system and the occurrence of high wind speeds. It shows a decline in availability of about 5% for wind speeds higher than the wind limit
of used O&M tools. This results in a loss of revenues of about 2% per year. The relationship between PM interval, failure- and decline rate has been investigated. The first results indicate a trend towards a decreased need for PM than the intervals used in the base case. The…
Advisors/Committee Members: Vrijling, J.K., Veraart, C., Van Bussel, G.J.W., Van der Meulen M., M.%22%29&pagesize-30">Van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M., Hydronamic bv.

Throughout the last decade, different methods of public transportation operation planning have been presented in order to meet the intricate relationship between the demand for modern transportation and the supply of public transportation, such as Dynamic Transportation and Operations - DTPO and the Dynamic OD Estimation DODE. Although their effectiveness is repeatedly proven, these methods carry with them the inconvenience…

The Tourism sector is of strategic importance to the Northern region of Portugal and is growing. This Master?s thesis considers the problem of forecasting the monthly guest nights in tourist accommodations in the region. This is a current and relevant problem to the management of tourist accommodations. The proposed approach to solve it is based on the application of artificial neural networks.

▼ Background: Workers in a platinum group metals (PGMs) refinery are potentially exposed to various precious metals (iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium and ruthenium) and their metal-salt compounds which may cause rhinitis, asthma, contact urticaria and conjunctivitis. Some cases revealed that sensitisation occurred in employees where it was not possible to detect any airborne soluble platinum or where the respiratory soluble platinum exposure was below the occupational exposure limit. It is unclear whether respiratory exposure or a combination of respiratory and dermal exposure may be involved in sensitisation and the possible elicitation of skin symptoms.
Objectives: To determine if dermal exposure to PGMs took place during the refining process and in the administration area by using a removal method and to compare dermal exposure on the different anatomical areas and in two different working areas, Areas A and B for each of the PGMs.
Methods: Dermal exposure samples were collected with a removal method using GhostwipesTM. The samples were collected from the palm of the hands, the wrists and the necks of the workers, before the shift started, before tea time, before lunch time and after the shift ended. The skin wipes were analysed for the PGMs (iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, ruthenium and rhodium) according to Methods for the Determination of Hazardous Substances (MDHS) method 46/2, using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry.
Results: No published data is available on occupational dermal exposure to PGMs in a precious metals refinery. This study proved that dermal exposure to PGMs in the refinery took place and was quantified. The PGM dermal exposure results in general, were very low (measured in nano grams), with platinum having the overall highest exposure. Exposure also occurred the most frequently during the last two intervals of the day, before lunch time and at the end of the shift. Exposure on all three the anatomical areas that were tested in the study, varied much with the palm of the hands having the highest exposure levels. There were also variations in exposure between areas A and B due to the fact that the processes in these two areas differ.
Conclusions: It was confirmed that dermal exposure to PGMs took place at the precious metals refinery. The highest exposure took place before lunch time and towards the end of the shift. The metal to which the workers were exposed the most was platinum and the production area where the workers had the highest exposure to most of the metals was Area B.